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Lyons: Good cop still needs a reprimand for this

Published: Monday, July 29, 2013 at 11:03 p.m.

Last Modified: Monday, July 29, 2013 at 11:03 p.m.

The verbally aggressive and dysfunctional alcoholic a Sarasota cop flung into the corner of a bus station building is about as undeserving of sympathy as anyone ever injured by police.

Roger Fields, perhaps most aptly described by the neighbor who testified that the man is a “mean drunk,” certainly acted like one.

He had previously threatened a bus driver and had just spit on a security guard, among other bad behaviors.

So I have no sympathy for him. None. If someone had to have his head bashed and gashed requiring an emergency room visit and stitches, I'm glad it was him.

The opposite goes for the Sarasota police officer who flung him.

Officer Derrick Gilbert has a reputation as a good cop, not one prone to brutality. I'm sorry it was him who did the flinging, and glad he's keeping his job. One moment of video-captured, split-second over-reaction, in which Gilbert clearly used more force than needed, should certainly not be career ending or anything even close.

And so, it is tempting to just let the police department's Internal Affairs whitewash slide, without even pointing it out.

But Gilbert is walking away without so much as a reprimand, or acknowledgment by him or anyone else that he did throw that man into the metallic corner of a building, gashing his forehead, after Fields had — for a change — been doing nothing but sitting still. He flinched away, still sitting, when Gilbert suddenly grabbed him from behind.

Fields had as much input into that fast-action moment that followed as the hammer does when heaved during a track and field event.

But the IA is emphatic: Gilbert was just trying to handcuff Fields when the intoxicated man somehow staggered in response and smacked his face into that metal corner.

Heck, I can understand that investigators and witnesses alike wanted to tell themselves that what happened was an accident caused solely by Field, as Gilbert claimed.

Too bad there is a video, really. Without it, it would be easy to believe what everyone on scene says and probably thinks they saw.

Everyone but Fields, that is, but who cares what he says?

Only, fact is, what's on the video bears no resemblance to what Gilbert and IA say happened. No drunk ever staggered half as fast and hard as Field's limp body flew toward that wall.

That's why City Manager Tom Barwin, when he watched it back in November, looked so dismayed and said it “was clearly excessive force” and added: “This will not be tolerated.”

But now Barwin has decided the only bad thing was his own speaking too fast, and so mistakenly. The IA report shows he erred, not Gilbert, so that is that.

If the IA report said Fields was dressed as a circus clown doing acrobatic stunts and hurt himself with a backflip into that wall, maybe that would become fact, too.

Lots of people assume IA reports are baloney. I don't. I have seen SPD reports I thought were strong in painstaking fact-gathering and honest assessment. Not all, just some. But this one especially makes me wonder just how much politics plays into all internal investigations.

Fields did contribute, plenty, to what happened at the bus station. If he really had injured himself as reported, it would have been ironic justice and even tempting to post a video on You Tube so everyone could enjoy seeing an obnoxious drunk knock himself silly.

Too bad the real video shows a cop — maybe unintentionally, but oh so obviously — swinging a man hard, face first and very suddenly into the corner of a wall.

That makes this IA finding scary. Gilbert needed exactly what the public needed, and didn't get, from the investigation and from Police Chief Bernadette DiPino: A realistic portrayal of what he did wrong, and an announcement of some sort of reprimand for the mistake.

<p>The verbally aggressive and dysfunctional alcoholic a Sarasota cop flung into the corner of a bus station building is about as undeserving of sympathy as anyone ever injured by police.</p><p>Roger Fields, perhaps most aptly described by the neighbor who testified that the man is a “mean drunk,” certainly acted like one.</p><p>He had previously threatened a bus driver and had just spit on a security guard, among other bad behaviors.</p><p>So I have no sympathy for him. None. If someone had to have his head bashed and gashed requiring an emergency room visit and stitches, I'm glad it was him.</p><p>The opposite goes for the Sarasota police officer who flung him.</p><p>Officer Derrick Gilbert has a reputation as a good cop, not one prone to brutality. I'm sorry it was him who did the flinging, and glad he's keeping his job. One moment of video-captured, split-second over-reaction, in which Gilbert clearly used more force than needed, should certainly not be career ending or anything even close.</p><p>And so, it is tempting to just let the police department's Internal Affairs whitewash slide, without even pointing it out.</p><p>But Gilbert is walking away without so much as a reprimand, or acknowledgment by him or anyone else that he did throw that man into the metallic corner of a building, gashing his forehead, after Fields had — for a change — been doing nothing but sitting still. He flinched away, still sitting, when Gilbert suddenly grabbed him from behind.</p><p>Fields had as much input into that fast-action moment that followed as the hammer does when heaved during a track and field event.</p><p>But the IA is emphatic: Gilbert was just trying to handcuff Fields when the intoxicated man somehow staggered in response and smacked his face into that metal corner.</p><p>Heck, I can understand that investigators and witnesses alike wanted to tell themselves that what happened was an accident caused solely by Field, as Gilbert claimed. </p><p>Too bad there is a video, really. Without it, it would be easy to believe what everyone on scene says and probably thinks they saw.</p><p>Everyone but Fields, that is, but who cares what he says?</p><p>Only, fact is, what's on the video bears no resemblance to what Gilbert and IA say happened. No drunk ever staggered half as fast and hard as Field's limp body flew toward that wall.</p><p>That's why City Manager Tom Barwin, when he watched it back in November, looked so dismayed and said it “was clearly excessive force” and added: “This will not be tolerated.”</p><p>But now Barwin has decided the only bad thing was his own speaking too fast, and so mistakenly. The IA report shows he erred, not Gilbert, so that is that.</p><p>If the IA report said Fields was dressed as a circus clown doing acrobatic stunts and hurt himself with a backflip into that wall, maybe that would become fact, too.</p><p>Lots of people assume IA reports are baloney. I don't. I have seen SPD reports I thought were strong in painstaking fact-gathering and honest assessment. Not all, just some. But this one especially makes me wonder just how much politics plays into all internal investigations.</p><p>Fields did contribute, plenty, to what happened at the bus station. If he really had injured himself as reported, it would have been ironic justice and even tempting to post a video on You Tube so everyone could enjoy seeing an obnoxious drunk knock himself silly.</p><p>Too bad the real video shows a cop — maybe unintentionally, but oh so obviously — swinging a man hard, face first and very suddenly into the corner of a wall.</p><p>That makes this IA finding scary. Gilbert needed exactly what the public needed, and didn't get, from the investigation and from Police Chief Bernadette DiPino: A realistic portrayal of what he did wrong, and an announcement of some sort of reprimand for the mistake.</p>